From Monsoon to StarT-Voyager-university-industry collaboration in research

In the mid-1980s, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded a number of large computer architecture projects to be carried out by partnerships of universities and industrial organizations. One of DARPA's several goals for this type of research collaboration was to expedite technology transfer from academia to industry. Another goal was to improve university access to the design and manufacturing expertise available in industry. Moreover, DARPA sought to broaden the financial support base for computer architecture research by requiring industrial partners to pay at least half the cost of projects. This article describes one of the earliest such research projects conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) and Motorola's Computer Group (MCG). MIT and Motorola worked together on two parallel computers, Monsoon and StarT, from 1989 until November 1995. These projects are unique not only because of the close collaboration between academy and industry but also because of their size and scope.